2023 Lavender Ridge Roussanne – Venture Beyond Chardonnay!
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The Winery
Picture from Lavender Ridge Vineyard Facebook
Lavender Ridge Vineyard tasting room is in the town of Murphys in the lower Sierra Nevada foothills. Lavender Ridge specializes in Rhone varietal wines. They include Cotes du Calaveras Blanc, Viognier, Roussanne, Rolle, Grenache Blanc, Grenache Rose, Grenache, Cotes du Calaveras, Mourvedre, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Alicante Bouschet, Vin Doux and Anniversaire Blanc. They also feature an artisan cheese selection that is unique and has something for just about everyone.
Photo ©Michael Kelly
To read more about Lavender Ridge, see three previous articles:
The Wine – “Wine is bottled poetry” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Photo ©Michael Kelly
Roussanne on the eyes is a light radiant and clear golden straw color with medium heavy viscosity. On the nose floral aromatics, hints of pear, apricots waft into the senses. On the palate, you are treated to a silky-smooth mouthful texture. The finish provides a soft nutty almond, compounded with a hint of honey and distinct minerality. This Roussanne is powerful with floral aromatics, with hints of peaches, pears and provided a rich and silky-smooth mouthful texture. The fullness of body, almost a creamy sense, is the key contributor making this a unique wine! Roussanne brings more acidity, elegance and aromatic complexities to the wine. Lavender Ridge Roussanne has consistently won awards at various wine competitions. Rich Gilpin, owner & winemaker, produces Roussanne as a standard varietal and a nice change up from Chardonnay! Today’s vintage is 2023 and it goes for $30/bottle. This wine has made my Annual Best Wines Tasted list for 6 years in a row. It will also make the list for 2025 for wines $50 and less!
Photo ©Michael Kelly
The Food and Wine Pairing – “Food without wine is a corpse; wine without food is a ghost. United and well matched, they are as body and soul: living partners” – Andre Simon
Photo ©Michael Kelly
A new dish tonight called Crock Pot Honey Sesame Chicken. Decided to try Lavender Ridge Roussanne as an alternative white wine. The ingredients included chicken breasts being placed in the crock pot for 3 hours with black pepper, low-sodium soy sauce, tomato paste, honey, rice wine vinegar, minced garlic, grated ginger, sesame oil, water, sriracha, cornstarch, sesame seeds and scallion slices, for garnish. This was served over long and short grain rice. The savory and mildly spicy is an Asian inspired and balanced flavor profile for a weekday dinner.
While Chardonnay may have been the recommended wine, with the mouth-filling and flavorful Roussanne it was an exquisite treat this week
As a side note, my wife made a note on the recipe for next time to omit the tomato paste and rice wine vinegar and add more sriracha to boost the spiciness!
Sláinte,
Michael Kelly
October 24, 2025 at 6:11 pm
We were at the tasting room in Murphys about three weeks back and yes, that’s a magnificent wine!